Category Archives: Data Use Policy Update

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Controlled sharing, Data Use Policy Update, Facebook, Facebook Photo Privacy Settings, Facebook Tricks, Facebook's New Design, The New Facebook

Use Your Facebook Privacy Settings – or lose them completely!

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At some point last year,  Facebook users who hadn’t changed their search privacy settings lost the ability to change them at all. As of yesterday, October 10, 2013, all Facebook users lost that privacy feature. Why? Because Facebook arbitrarily changes these settings to benefit themselves, not their users. Here is what they have to say about it:

Reminder: Finishing the Removal of an Old Search Setting

Read over Facebook’s rather lame reasoning for this action. What’s the next thing that Facebook will change? We suspect that, unless you have set your post/status/photo settings to anything other than ‘everyone’, everything you post on Facebook will be just that, open to everyone. Every photo, every comment, every status update will be wide open to both people you know and millions upon millions of people you don’t. Change your settings now before you lose them completely.

On the page linked above, you should read the section about limiting your past posts. Here’s a graphic that they use:

Photo of Facebook Limit Past Posts
This is a way to set all of your past posts to Friends Only or Friends of Friends, depending on your preferences.

 

When you are making a new post, whether it be a status update, a photo/album or something that you’re sharing, be sure to set the privacy level that you feel secure with. Here’s a graphic about how to do that:

Photo of Facebook Post Privacy
Adjust these setting now before you lose the ability to change them at all.

 

We’ve just read that Twitter is now more popular among teens than Facebook is. Teens, the original audience for Facebook, seem to have moved on, leaving Facebook to their parents and grandparents. You can bet that Facebook will ramp up their privacy changes in the near future to eliminate that privacy altogether. Read through our posts and figure out how to change your settings to match your own level of security. It looks as if those who don’t use the settings, lose them completely. Don’t let this happen to you.

 

Thanks for reading. We enjoy your comments and questions. Use the form below to let us know what’s on your mind. Better yet, Like us on Facebook and keep up with our posts and tips. Here’s the link: Computers Made Simple on Facebook

 

 

Data Use Policy Update, Facebook, Facebook Games, Facebook Secrets, Facebook Tricks, Hide Game Updates

Facebook Game Privacy

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Most of us like to play some of the games on Facebook. If you read our last post, you’ll know that you don’t have a lot of privacy when you play these games. We’ve recommended using a dummy account for games but that’s up to you. If you do play games on your main or only Facebook account, here’s how you can adjust a few privacy settings.

1. Go to your Privacy Settings page (top right, click on the little down arrow and choose Privacy Settings.)

2. Look for the words ‘Ads, Apps and Websites’ about 3/4s of the way down the page then click ‘Edit settings’ on the right side.

3. You should be at a page that looks like this:

Photo of Facebook Game Settings 1
Here is where we’ll spend some time.

 

4. Read the top part of this page. You’ll see why we suggest a dummy account for games. Here is the important part:

“On Facebook, your name, profile picture, gender, networks, username and user id (account number) are always publicly available, including to apps (Learn why). Also, by default, apps have access to your friends list and any information you choose to make public.”

Note that your friend list is available to applications and games, even if it is marked ‘only me’ in your custom privacy settings. We’re not sure why a game has to know who your friends are but, hey, that’s Facebook!

5. In the middle of the page you’ll see a short list of apps that you are using. Not all are shown at once so click the words ‘Edit settings’. The next page that comes up will have a complete list of apps that you have allowed to ‘interact with your Facebook account’. In other words, these are the apps that Facebook has shared your most intimate details with. There certainly are a lot of them, aren’t there? Every web page, every game, every little widget that you’ve added to your Facebook account is there.

6. On the right side of every app, there is the word ‘Edit’. Click that and let’s see what you’re sharing with your friends. This is what Social Wars can see on one of our accounts:

Photo of Facebook Games
We think you should match your settings to these.

 

7. Every app that you use must be able to access your basic information. This one, Social Wars, says that it has to be able to access your email, too. Not every app requires that but this one does. However, does this Facebook user get emails from Social Wars? No. See down at the bottom where it says ‘When to notify you?’ We’ve set that to ‘Never’.

8. Why cover your Timeline with posts from games? You don’t have to.  There will always be some game posts when you look at your own Timeline but you can hide all of these from your friends. Second up from the bottom is the line ‘Posts on your behalf’. Well thanks, Social Wars, but we don’t want you to post crap on our Timeline. Therefore we’ve set that to ‘Only Me’. Only this Facebook user will see Social War’s posts, no one else.

9. We suggest that you work your way down the complete list of apps and change your settings to match ours. You can, of course, adjust each app to your own level of privacy. It takes time but we think it’s worth it.

TIP: Every time you add a game or an app, you’ll have to change these settings for it, right? Remember that.

10. Lastly, on the far right of each app or game you’ll see a little X. That is how you delete the game or app entirely. If you haven’t used something for a while, get rid of it. Some of these apps are temporary, for contests and so on. There is no reason to give them continued access to your private data, is there?

TIP: Even though you have deleted a game or an app, guess what? They still have all of your data. Look at this warning from Facebook regarding a game, Farmville:

Photo of Facebook Games 3
Oh no! Farmville (and other games) still have your personal data!

See why we suggest a dummy account for games? Does it makes sense now?

Thanks for reading! Questions and comments are always welcome.

 

Adjust Default Privacy Settings, Data Use Policy Update, Facebook, Fotobounce

Protect Facebook Photos from Bulk Downloaders

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We’ve written about Fotobounce before, here and here . Fotobounce allows you to download full photo albums from  friends or pages that you like on Facebook. Yesterday, we got involved in a discussion about precisely this activity. Some of our artist or photographer friends objected to friends and/or complete strangers downloading their photos and using them on other social media sites. While we agreed that there is a case to be made here, we pointed out that simply putting something on Facebook is telling the world that it’s OK to copy/share/use etc. Anyway, that’s not the point today. In this post, we’ll teach you how to defeat Fotobounce from stealing your photos. (Stealing is a strong word but it kind of fits here.)

Deep inside Facebook’s privacy page, in an area that you probably wouldn’t get to on your own, there is a section that will allow you to prevent Fotobounce from downloading your photo albums. Here’s how to do it:

1. On the top right of any Facebook page, click on the down arrow like this:

Photo of Block Fotobounce 1
Click on Privacy Settings

2. Once you get to the Privacy Settings page, look for the section that says ‘Ads, Apps and Websites’. Click on ‘Edit Settings’.

Photo of Block Fotobounce 2
Click on Edit Settings

 

3. When the next page pops up, look for the section that says ‘How people bring your info to apps they use’.

Photo of Block Fotobounce 3
Click on Edit Settings

 

4. Finally, you’re at the page we want. This is how it probably looks the first time you see it:

Photo of Block Fotobounce 4
Most things are checked on this page. This isn’t good.

What you see here are the controls for what parts of your information Facebook apps can use. This is completely separate from what your friends can see or what strangers can see. We’ve already covered hiding things from your friends in many previous posts. Right now, we want to stop any Facebook apps from using your personal information including your photo albums. 

5. You’ll have to take our word for it but ignore the last line: “But, remember, you will not be able to use any games or apps yourself.” That line is total baloney. 

TIP: Despite what Facebook and games such as Farmville tell you, games and apps do not need access to anything other than your Basic Information. Check the photo below. Basic Information is not something that can be hidden anyway.  If you uncheck everything on that page, you will still be able to play games as usual. Please note that you can also limit what parts of your Basic Information that anyone can see. More on that in a future post. 

6. Here is how one of our accounts looks after we fixed our app settings:

Photo of Block Fotobounce 5
Nothing is checked and we can still play games. Looks like Facebook lied.

 

7. You see above that nothing is checked. Apps cannot see anything about this profile. Neither can websites or, supposedly, games. At least that’s what Facebook tells you. More on that in a future post. The good news is that Fotobounce will not be able to access your photos at all. Not only will they not be able to download them, your photos are not even visible in Fotobounce.

We advise you to take these steps immediately to protect your personal data from being spread across websites and Facebook apps and games. Once everything is unchecked, your own Facebook experience won’t change. You won’t notice any difference. Then again, you won’t be shocked when your face shows up on a website or game somewhere, either. That, we think, is worth the few minutes that this process takes.

Thanks for reading! Stay in touch on Facebook, too. Here’s the Computers Made Simple Facebook page link: https://www.facebook.com/ComputersMadeSimple?ref=hl

Avoid Facebook Email Scams, Data Use Policy Update, Facebook

Facebook Changes the Rules

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Facebook will send you an email today, November 22, 2012. Here’s what the email looks like, just in case you think it’s not really from Facebook:

Photo of Facebook Email 1
This is the real thing, an email from Facebook.

 

There is a link inside the email, here it is: https://www.facebook.com/fbsitegovernance  The link leads to a Facebook page titled : Facebook Site Governance. Even though the email only went out today, 2.4 million Facebook users have ‘liked’ the page. Go figure.

The information that Facebook wants you to read is on the Documents box or ‘tab’, as they call it. Here’s a shot of it:

Photo of Facebook Email 2
Click on the Documents box to read the new rules.

Read the next page carefully. It outlines the changes and contains some interesting wording. Here’s something that we have mentioned before but you should take note of it now:  “Reminders about what’s visible to other people on Facebook. For instance, when you hide things from your timeline, those posts are visible elsewhere, like in news feed, on other people’s timelines, or in search results.”  Even though we try to help you hide things on Facebook, even Facebook tells you that those things may be visible elsewhere. You’be been warned.

The links to the changes are down at the bottom. If you want to read about the changes now, click on the top link in each group of two links. The ‘Redline’ link leads to a page which allows you to download the ‘redlined’ version of the changes. Basically, this is a .pdf file that shows each change from the last site governance. The changes are in red. Here’s what they look like:

Photo of Facebook Email 3
See what ‘redline’ means?

 

Read the redlined pages carefully. Make sure you know what Facebook is doing with your data and what they are sharing with their advertisers (basically Google).

Two things bother us about this email. With all of the fake Facebook emails that we get almost every day, why would Facebook not use your Facebook name at the top of this message? PayPal uses your name when they send you an email, just so you know it’s from them, right? There are plenty of fake PayPal emails but when a company uses your name in a message, you can be pretty sure that it’s what it says it is. Secondly, most Americans are on holiday today and will be for the next few days. It’s Thanksgiving in the United States. If this message from Facebook was so vitally important, why would they send it out on the very day that most of its recipients will be doing something else? Call us sceptics but we think that Facebook doesn’t really want its user to actually read about these changes. What do you think?

While we like Facebook, we don’t trust Facebook. We think the company is irresponsible and totally lacking any kind of moral responsibility to it’s millions of users. Facebook is a business, plain and simple, only interested in money, not the safety and privacy of the people who use it. Remember that. Have fun with Facebook but don’t share things that you wouldn’t share with a complete stranger.

Comments, questions and tips are always welcome.

Thanks for reading! Here’s a link to our Facebook page. Keep track of our posts by liking it.  Computers Made Simple on Facebook